


Under These Hallway Lights

by Narutwink



Series: The Life and Times of Students in Rose High School and Beyond [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Eventual homophobia, F/F, F/M, M/M, Religion, Sports!Ymir, This will be a happy story for the most part though folks, tw eventual verbal abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1655987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narutwink/pseuds/Narutwink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ymir plays basketball, softball, and if she can swing it, Football this year. Scholarships are hard to come by, especially for girls in the South. She's knows she's ready to get the hell out of dodge, she was not ready to accidentally hit someone with a door so hard she nearly breaks their nose.</p><p>A beginning to a beautiful love story if there ever was one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ymir's First Impressions Are Never Good

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! So this is going to be part of a three or four part series that are all going to be set within the same universe. This story will focus mainly on Ymir and Krista with other pairing slipped in as I write more if this and the other stories. So be on the look-out!
> 
> I know I've been exclusively Les Mis, mainly E/R, but hopefully you guys will enjoy this too!
> 
> Also, you can always say hello at narutwink.tumblr.com

“Come on Ymir! One more round of sprints and you can go home.”

“You’re about to get one more round of my foot up your ass.” The brunette muttered under her breath. She could hear Mina snicker from not far behind. 

Honestly, why had she even thought that playing high school basketball was anywhere close to a good idea? Lying around doing nothing and smoking weed had served her well in her middle school years, what physically fit demon thought it was necessary for her to try out and actually make the team. 

“You got it! Just remember, those scouts are going to be here at next month’s game! If they like you, you’ll be guaranteed a full scholarship in two years!”

Oh yeah, that. Ymir had never thought about college before high school. She thought she would be stuck in this podunk, bum fuck nowhere town forever. 

Until someone mentioned athletics for sports scholarships and suddenly, a new life had been laid before her in the form of the team captain ogling at her height. 

Ymir groaned and pushed through the last of her round and collapsed on the bleachers closest to her. Annie was already sitting drinking her water bottle and looking nothing less than unfazed. How the hell she did it, Ymir could never figure out. 

“Fantastic! I’ll see you girls tomorrow night at practice, get some rest and I hope you all enjoy your first day of school tomorrow!!” Coach Pixis calls while grabbing his things. 

“Bye coach!” Sasha yells. She was a hyper active little shit, but she never did anyone wrong. She was pretty cool in that way…but hell she could be loud as fuck. 

“You guys ready for school tomorrow??” Sasha asked while bouncing over to her gym bag. 

Where the extra energy she had after absolutely grueling practices came from, Ymir couldn't figure. However, she believed witchcraft and the selling of Sasha’s soul and/or firstborn child probably had something to do with it. Sasha seemed too nice sometimes to not be secretly hiding a demon or spell book somewhere. 

“School? Are we ever actually ready for school, Sasha? It kind of just happens.” Rico responds not even sparing the her a look. 

"I wonder if the stick up her ass 'just kind of happened," Ymir mutters.

Ymir pretty much hated Rico. Sometimes, Ymir would joke about hating Annie, but that was all it was, a joke. Rico was a pretentious senior who had felt she was above and beyond all of her peers since the day Ymir had met the brat her freshman year of high school. The day Ymir finally decided that Rico should be decked in the face was the day she called Sasha “a waste of space that should stick to sitting in trees in the woods, not on a basketball court.” Of course, Ymir couldn’t actually punch Rico in the face, she would be kicked off the team. Mysteriously, about five months ago a stray softball made a beeline for Rico’s thigh during gym class. No one ever really saw where the ball came from, but some sources say that Ymir was in the outfield practicing her fast pitch at the time. 

Ymir never claimed to be nice, but her friends were the people she would ride onto a battlefield for. Maybe not led by them, because let’s be honest, Sasha might lead them straight into a ditch, but she would fight for them.

“Honestly, I’m just ready for this year to be over already. Two more first days of school and I’m college bound.” Annie replies, hiding her smirk. 

Ymir nods, it was her junior year of high school as well. She couldn’t wait for it to already fucking end. 

“Oh you guys are such party poopers!! Get jazzed! Think of all the new shit that could happen!! Maybe we’ll make new friends and go to parties and…”

“…and fly away in a magical car, singing songs everyone magically knows choreography for.” Ymir finishes sarcastically. 

Everyone knew Sasha’s weakness for “Grease.” She had watched it nearly twenty five times since Ymir had met the girl. 

“Don’t be a jerk, Ymir,” Mina says with a playful sternness, “For one Sasha, I’m actually excited about this school year. I got chosen to be in yearbook as a sophomore, so remember, if you see me with a camera, you have to smile. No exceptions.” She finishes. Mina makes sure to sweep her eyes across the team with a threatening finger jab to match. 

“Whatever, Mina. We all know you’ll only get the worst pictures of us because they’re funnier and that’s what high school students love.” Ymir calls out smugly. 

Mina smirks and shrugs her shoulders on her way out of the gym doors. 

“Later dweebs.” Ymir yells to everyone as they leave to the locker room and gracefully kicks the door in front of her open. 

Typically, this would not have been a problem, however, the universe loves to throw Ymir curveballs. 

It was still summer vacation, technically. Even though the women’s basketball team had mandatory practice, school for non-athletes didn't begin until tomorrow. 

So, when a short blonde happened to be walking by the gym at just the right time to be hit directly in the face with the door Ymir had just kicked open at full force, Ymir considered it the worst luck in the history of time itself for both of them. 

“OH MY GOD.” Ymir yells. The blonde girl just stayed on the ground, disoriented. Maybe dead.

‘ _She seems to be conscious._ ’ Ymir thought, but she was basing this on the fact that this girl’s eyes were still open, but maybe she slept that way. How could Ymir even know?

“Shit, are you ok?” Ymir asks while bending down to look at the fresh goose egg forming on the girl’s forehead. 

The girl sat up and took in everything around her, was she on the ground? She looked up to find and very tall, and very pretty, girl standing over her. 

“Oh god, fuck. Did I give you a concussion? Shit, hell, I’m really sorry. Do you want me to call an ambulance or something?” 

“Um, no. Ow, that really hurts. Thank you for offering though, I probably shouldn’t have been walking so close to those doors. I’m sorry! It’s fine, really!”

Was this girl seriously apologizing for being smacked in the face with a large, wooden door?

“Don’t apologize, I shouldn’t be kicking doors. Let me help you up.” Ymir held her hand to the, now that she was looking at her, _very_ short girl. She couldn’t be more than five feet. 

“I’m Ymir. I’m the asshole who just chronically kicks doors at Rose High School. It’s actually an epidemic. They’ve been trying to peg me for years, but I disappear into the throng of moving teenagers before they can catch me. Astounding really, being that I’m nearly six feet tall, but hey, that’s public school for you.” Ymir could feel herself rambling, it happened occasionally if she was nervous about something. Kicking a door into someones face gives you a right to be nervous.

The timid girl below her seemed to be caught between laughing and trying to figure if what Ymir was saying was true or not. 

“I’m going to assume that you’re new? I mean, I've never seen you before.” Ymir finished. Rose High School was incredibly small with a student body of just over three hundred. If you didn't know someone, they were new. 

Ymir was finally able to extract a nod from the shy, yet utterly adorable, being in front of her. 

“My name is Krista, It's my first year in public school, and high school in general, and it looks like no one is here and school doesn’t actually start until tomorrow.” Her name had sounded like ‘Kritha,’ because after Ymir had helped her stand, her nose began to bleed and she tried to hold it closed. 

“Oh…wow. Here, there’s a bathroom right here, lets try to get your nose to stop bleeding.” Ymir led Krista, who was now walking with her head held up, to a nearby bathroom and had her lean over a sink. 

“So, how long have you been wandering around campus exactly?” Ymir asks while grabbing some paper towels. 

“Twho houers” Krista’s speech was still a little slurred from the attempt of trying to staunch the blood gushing from her nose. 

The taller of the two stopped momentarily to look back at the sink with a raised brow and a frown. Krista was bent over the sink with running water at this point and hadn’t seen the face Ymir had made. 

“…how long were you planning on walking around until you realized school’s not actually open today?”

She imagined Krista would roll her eyes, instead the girl just smiled.

“I realized after my classroom door was locked and no one had come, I just wanted to get a good tour of my other classes before mobs of people pushed me around while I stumbled through the school lost. I was here anyway.”

Ymir had only heard parts of whatever Krista had just said because it wasn’t until that moment that she realized the bloodied girl had an accent of some kind. She couldn’t quite place it though.

“Where are you from?”

Krista had been in the midst of another sentence and Ymir felt bad for not listening, but Krista smiled again anyway and said, 

“I’m from Alto, Georgia. I lived there my entire life until I moved here a couple months ago.“ 

‘That’s it, Georgia peach.’ Ymir thought as she handed the towels to Krista, about time. The poor girl had been bleeding profusely into a sink for about five minutes. Ymir was beginning to think the amount of blood being lost was worthy of calling an ambulance and Ymir prayed to every god she could think of that this poor girl was not on her period too. 

“Georgia? Bit of a drive. Any particular reason you came up to live in North Carolina?” Ymir asked as she threw the bloody towels into the trashcan, probably breaking fourteen different health code regulations. 

“Yeah, my mother didn’t want to live there anymore and my she found a better paying job up here.” 

Ymir nodded and looked back at the blonde. She visibly winced. 

“What?” Krista asked slightly worried. 

“You kind of have blood stains…everywhere. They’re all over your face…and everywhere. It's kind of on your necklace too.”

Krista immediately wrapped her hand around the cross that hung low on her chest and thrust it into the water, scrubbing viciously. She looked like she was about to throw up.

“Woah, hey…” Ymir starts. Krista was either ignoring her or completely hadn’t her.

“Blondie, hey stop, if you keep scrubbing that hard you’ll end up taking some skin with it.” Ymir states. 

Krista was shaking and her breathing had picked up, but she had finally calmed down enough to stop scrubbing. She was still holding it dangerously tight. 

“I have some jewelry cleaner in my practice bag, I left it near the gym door. I’ll be right back, ok?” Ymir says calmly. Ymir, being on the basketball team, was no stranger to bleeding profusely from random injuries. She typically wore earrings and it comes in handy to get the blood off.

When Ymir returns, she finds Krista scrubbing lightly at a small stain that had dripped on to her shirt. At least it wasn’t white; that would have really sucked.  
She hands the bottle to Krista and her shoulders release an enormous amount of tension. 

“Thank you so much.” The poor girl sounded close to tears. 

“I’m really sorry.” Ymir says, she had never been great with apologies and she knows its sounds stiff and awkward. 

“It’s alright, at least you didn’t leave me to bleed out in the middle of the floor. You let me use this,” she shakes the bottle of cleaner in her hand, “I mean, you’re worried about me. So, thank you! I forgive you for hitting me with a door on accident.” Ymir can hear the slight sarcasm in last sentence. 

“You know, sometimes we haze freshmen. I think you’ve paid your dues though.”  
Krista looked terrified for a millisecond and Ymir couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m joking. It’s against school policy, plus I don’t have time to terrify kids who are already terrified enough.”

Krista laughed and smiled. 

“You said your name was Yahmeer, right?”

She snorts, “Ymir. I know it’s kind of difficult to pronounce. Almost as hard as my last name, Upphaf. Substitute teachers gave up years ago. I’m either ‘tall brunette’ or ‘Stop disrupting class, young lady!”

Krista giggled and tried the words again. “Ymir Upphaf. Very unique. My full name is Krista Lenz.”

“Sorry the first friend you meet at a brand new school violently hit you with a door before school even started.”

“It’s alright, really. Do you have a cell phone I could borrow, please? I need to call my mother and I don’t really know where any of the school phones are.”

“Sure, I didn’t break yours or anything did I?” That would have put a fucking cherry on the asshole cake.

“No! I didn’t have one to begin with.” She says as she begins dialing the numbers on Ymir’s Iphone. 

“Ok, I’m going to go grab my bag real quick.” Ymir states. Krista smiles in response. 

‘Damn, she’s cute.’ Ymir had a knack for always fucking up first impressions with people she finds attractive. There was the cupcake incident of 2010 that Annie had never, truly let her live down and this was, by far, probably 100x worse. 

Ymir, now that she was alone, could feel her face heating up and turning her dark skin an interesting shade. She groaned audibly and connected the heel of her palm to her forehead. 

‘The universe has it out for me this year, I can feel it.’

A pair of her shorts and some kneepads had been strewn about in a need for speed when she was looking for the jewelry cleaner. She stuffs everything back in the bag haphazardly and slings it on her shoulder and walks casually back to the bathroom in hopes of easing the red in her cheeks. 

As she enters the doorway she hears Krista talking in a hushed tone. 

“Yes, Ma’am. Of course. I am very sorry, it will never happen again. Ye…Alright. Yes, Ma’am,” Ymir hears the sound of her phone being set on the bathroom sink. 

“Everything alright?” Krista looks up and smiles, as brightly as she had all day, and hands Ymir her phone back. 

“Yep! My mother will be here soon, thank you for helping me with everything.” 

“It was kind of all my fault…well the door part.Not helping would've been like, the biggest dick move in history.”

“Still, thank you," She hesitates and asks, "Do you mind doing something with me?”

“Uhm, sure?”

“Ok!” Krista grabs Ymir’s hands and bows her head. Ymir starts to ask what she’s doing but Krista speaks first,

“Dear God, thank you for letting Ymir accidentally hit me with that door. Had she not, I probably would have had to walk home because I never would have had a phone. Please lord, let Ymir’s first day of school tomorrow be joyful and fulfilling. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”

“Amen.” Ymir says a little quietly. She had not expected that. She had not expected that, at all. The way Krista had nearly had a heart-attack about her cross, it made sense. Ymir couldn’t even remember the last time she had prayed. It might have been when she still believed that monsters lived in her closet and under he bed, or maybe at Mass when her mother commanded that she go. She didn’t really even think of herself as a Christian, not anymore. Not when she realized the real monsters had lurked elsewhere in her life, God was nowhere to be found then.

But she wasn’t going to tell Krista that. This was a sweet gesture and Ymir recognized that fact.

“Thank you, Krista. If you want, you could call your mom back and I could drop you off, if that might help?”

Krista paled slightly but waved her hands, “No, no! It’s all right! What’s done is done. I’ll see you tomorrow though, right?”

“Right. I’m sure we’ll see each other.” Ymir says blushing slightly. 

“Great! God bless!” Krista says smiling and turning towards the hallway that leads to the front entrance of the school.

“Yeah…you too.” Ymir mutters.  


“Hey, behemoth.” Ymir rolls her eyes. 

“Ah, my favorite stone cold bitch. What’s up, Annie?” Annie typically had a knack for holding her face in a permanent look of disinterest. Most of the time, it was just her resting face, but she smirked at Ymir. Ymir pretty much thought of Annie as one of her closest friends, Annie never said it, and maybe she never would, but she agreed. It might have something to do with the fact that they were both out, there was a sense of security there. They also decided to make-out once for “science” and it had been so awkward that they both laughed for nearly fifteen minutes and decided it was a terrible idea and they agreed to never try again. 

“Mina, Sasha and I were wondering if you wanted to come get some food with us and watch a couple movies before the beginning of the most miserable part of our existence begins again.”

Ymir snorts. “Yeah, that sounds like exactly how I want to spend my Sunday evening. Hanging with a bunch of losers.”

“You could go home and be a loser by yourself, but in my opinion, that’s even more pathetic.”

“No one asked for your opinion, Leonhart.”

“Typically, no one does, but it’s always greatly needed. My opinions could raise empires.” Annie says deadpan.

“Someone’s ego is in tip top shape today, where are we meeting?”

“Mina’s. She has the space and a fantastic Netflix queue.”

“Touché” Ymir says as she starts for towards the parking lot.

“Who was that girl, by the way? She was already half way down the hallway before I got to you. I didn’t recognize her.”

“The blonde? Said her name is Krista, cute as hell. She doesn’t pay a lot of attention though.” Annie nods and heads to her own car. 

Ymir rides with the windows down on the way to Mina’s with her music as loud as her speakers would allow, ‘Maybe the universe is letting me have this one and not try to fuck me over.’

That night the girls enjoyed their last late night as "free" women as they would be slaves to there schoolwork by the morning.


	2. Among Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School begins and so do old friendships.

Sometimes, high schoolers do really stupid things. Having a sleep over the night before the first day of school could be considered for one the top positions in the “stupid things” handbook. 

“Oh my god Annie, get off me.” 

“No.” comes the muffled response of the blonde. It is a fact that Annie is not the most pleasant when she wakes up and is also known to be a serial cuddler. 

“We have school.” Mina whines. 

“Fuck school.” Annie groans as Mina forces the blonde off of her, letting Annie’s nearly lifeless body collapse back on to the bed. 

Ymir was rising from her pallet of six blankets on the floor now, Sasha was still out like a light and snoring. 

“I’m taking a shower, if you guys want to start breakfast, you can.” Mina says after yawning and grabbing a towel. She stops once and looks back, “Please don’t set my stove on fire again.”

“That was ONE time!” Ymir groans into her hands. 

“And my stove still had scorch marks, I mean honestly, what did my stove ever do to you!?”

“It wouldn’t heat our macaroni fast enough.” Annie says, lifting her head off of a pillow. 

They hear Mina snort from the bathroom before shutting the door. 

Ymir yawns and taps Sasha’s side with her foot. “Hey, dorkface. Breakfast time.”

Sasha’s eyes fly open and she’s up faster than any sane human being should be able to move so early in the morning. 

“I’m feeling a continental breakfast, what about you guys?”

“Sasha, you’re the only one here who can cook besides Mina. Do whatever the hell makes you happy.” Ymir says from her spot on the floor. 

“Have I mentioned you both are kind of useless in the grand scheme of things breakfast related?” Sasha asks as she puts her hair up into its signature ponytail. Annie growls from the bed.

Sasha smiles and proceeds to take the stairs two at a time to advance her speed to the kitchen. 

It’s a general consensus that Sasha fucking loves food. Ymir realized that after hanging out with her for five minutes in second grade. Sometimes people make fun of her for it and comment on her size. Typically it goes, “How are you so small if shovel in food like a vacuum?” or something to that effect. The thing is Sasha didn’t always get to eat. Sasha loves the food others give her so much because, she didn’t always get the luxury of a large meal or snacks, or food in general. Ymir and the others began to pick up on it in eighth grade when they realized she had been wearing the same two pairs of jeans since fifth grade. Things got better after her dad finally landed a well paying job and she got an after school job sophomore year herself. Her job is what paid her basketball fees. They made a pact to never mention her eating and encourage her to eat as much as she damn well pleased. She typically has full reign of the kitchen when they all hang out. 

Sasha never mentions it to any of them, she shows them her gratitude by learning to cook the best meals she can find on the Internet with whatever ingredients are in the vicinity of wherever they are. Sasha knows the girls stick up for her when people talk about her eating behind her back. She once heard a rumor that a douche on the boys basketball team hadn’t been paying attention and said, “What the hell? Sasha eats like a cow, it’s a miracle she stays hot” as Annie had been walking by. The rumor also states that when the coach found the boy later, he was knocked unconscious and sitting inside a trashcan with a note taped to him that had the words “I’m in my new home where all disgusting things belong” written on it in bold black letters. He also had “TRASH” written on his forehead in the same script. No one has ever really been able to confirm whether the rumor is false or not because he always passes the story off as the football team just hazing the basketball players, or some bullshit, but it is known that whenever they pass each other in the hallway, Annie will stare at the boy until he passes while his eyes are glued to the floor.

“I’m done if either you want to use the shower now.” Mina says as she puts her up to dry in a towel. 

“Thanks, I’ll be glad to wash off the smell of popcorn and teenage despair” she says as she grabs her bag that is full of her toiletries and “First Day of School Necessities.” These necessities include: 1 hella cute outfit, 1 shade of fine ass lipstick, eye shadow that could make grown men weep, and 1 perfectly reliable hair accessory. Ymir took her shower more quickly than usual because the aroma of Sasha’s breakfast was beginning to filter in throughout the bathroom. She put her hair up in towel, like Mina, and finished her makeup before descending the stairs and entering Mina’s kitchen where Sasha was already practically done cooking. 

“Damn girl, you hit up all the stops.” Ymir says, taking a huge whiff of the pancakes in front of her. 

“First day of school requires an excellent and balanced breakfast so that one can make it through the day without slapping some idiot freshman.” Sasha says in a “teacherly” voice while holding her spatula in a very academic manner. 

“Truth” Annie agrees from behind the bacon pile. Annie had taken a shower the night before and was already dressed to face the day, her hair up in the official “Annie Leonhart bun.” It was her go to hair style, as far as Ymir could tell, she didn’t have time to focus on intricate ways to do your hair or fashion. It wasn’t really her thing, or maybe her dad was on her case so much she just wasn’t able to. Ymir didn’t want to offend Annie by asking, it was a really invasive question, but sometimes Ymir really worried about Annie and the way her Dad treated her. Annie had only really hinted that there was a problem once or twice, and that scared Annie’s friends more than anything, even if Annie didn’t realize it herself. The fact that Annie was eventually allowed to spend the night at their places was miraculous. 

Annie had problems at home, but Ymir never really knew how approach it, so she made Annie as comfortable as possible and tried to never treat her as something that was fragile. 

“Ok, we have…thirty minutes to eat. That will give us fifteen minutes to get to school.” Mina says while she glances at the clock on her cell phone. 

“So we actually have forty minutes, because with Ymir’s driving we’ll get there in five.”

“Haha, shut the fuck up.” 

Everyone around the table snickered, Ymir drove like it was her mission in life to destroy all things small and furry that dared cross her path while on the road. Thus far, the only ones to survive Ymir’s driving are the ones within Ymir’s car. 

“It’s alright, Ymir. You’ll make a great racecar driver one day.” Sasha says as she pats Ymir’s shoulder. 

“Whatever, if it wasn’t for me, we never would have made it to practice from that concert last month, on time, and you can’t even deny that.” Ymir states, crossing her arms and frowning. 

“Ymir…we almost took out three cars and outran a COP!” Mina exclaims. 

“Yes, we did, because I’m a good enough driver that I can outrun the law AND WIN. Plus, he never got close enough to see my license plate, otherwise we would have had a real problem on our hands.”

“Fucking shit, Ymir.” Annie mutters. 

The rest of the breakfast is spent talking about Ymir’s death trap of a car and how, she ‘must have sold her soul to have never wrecked’ according to Sasha. Ymir smiled into her chocolate milk. She had never really considered it, but she was really glad to have them. She had known most of them for years and had never really considered herself “alone.” Even after she came out, her Mom was unbelievably supportive, her team was supportive, she even had Annie, someone who really understood, to talk to. Ymir was lucky. Ymir had people who truly cared for her, they saw her in the darkest part of her life and were able to pull her out from it. They helped her through the whole process and now, she was able to move on with her life. Even after what her father did. She shuddered and let the memory pass. 

“Ok losers, let’s roll. We have freshman to scare.”

“Ymir, they’re only scared of you and that’s only because you’re a thousand feet tall.”

“Shut it, Brouse. Either you put on your game face or you walk.”

Ymir managed to only narrowly miss ending a poor racoons life, this time. Sasha decided it was best to shield her eyes the entire way to school. She exited the car and landed on her knees praying to God in thanks for letting her live. 

“It was not that bad.”

“The HELL it wasn’t! They call 'Death curve' that FOR A REASON, YMIR.”

"Death curve" was a patch of road that was nearly a ninety degree curve that the speed limit goes from 55 to 15 in barely enough time for one to slow down. The past decade it had claimed nearly sixty lives, mostly teenagers or people from out of town looking for a shortcut to the highway. It had recently gotten a sign after a group petitioned for it. The number of wrecks had been cut nearly in half within the first month.

Ymir rolled her eyes and grabbed her stuff as Sasha recovered and did the same. They were walking down the sidewalk when she heard a small voice. 

“Hi, Ymir.” 

Ymir turned and smiled, “Hey, Krista. Glad to see you got here on the right day AND on time. Gold star.”

Krista blushed and rolled her eyes, it was then Ymir turn to look at Krista full on. Krista’s nose was bandaged and she had a great shiner. 

“Fuck. Krista I didn’t realize that door hit you so hard, your first day and people are already going to think you’re a hellraiser.”

“I’ll just tell them you cornered me and took my lunch money, I’m sure you have a reputation to uphold.” Krista says sarcastically. Sasha snorts and Ymir remembers she’s there. Whoops.

“Oh yeah, Krista, this is Sasha. She’s on the basketball team with me and I’ve known her forever. You’ll grow to love her little redneck heart. Sasha, this is Krista. I accidentally kicked a door into her face after practice yesterday.”

Sasha’s eyes widened, “Dude.” 

“Yeah,” Ymir replies blushing, “Anyway, Krista, you want to walk with us?”

Krista practically beamed, “Yes! Of course!” 

‘This girl practically looks like an angel,’ Ymir thought. She could see Sasha from behind Krista wiggling her eyebrows as if to ask, “You and her?” Ymir shook her head and Sasha mouthed, ‘Yeah right.’

They all made small talk on their way to the lockers, eventually, Annie and Mina caught up, they had driven separately. Ymir made the introductions and Krista was an instant hit, she was obviously sweet, its hard not to love someone like that. They were talking about how the cafeteria food was basically punishment when Ymir feels a nudge on her arm. 

“Hey, isn’t that Mikasa Ackerman and her brother, Eren or something?” Annie asks. Ymir whistles. 

“I haven’t seen her since middle school, we played camp lacrosse together, remember?” Ymir asks. Annie nods. 

“We should say hi.” Sasha offers. Mina nods and the group head over. The little snot, Eren, shoots them all a dirty look before nudging his sister.

“What’s up, Mikasa? You might not remember, but we all went to middle school together?” Mina starts.

Mikasa’s eyebrows shoot up. 

“Actually, I do. Ymir, Annie, Sasha and Mina, right?” She looks to Krista, “I’m sorry, I don’t think I remember you though.”

Krista waves her hands and smiles, “No, I’m new, I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Krista Lenz.” She says offering her hand.

“Mikasa Ackerman. This is my brother, Eren Jeager.” 

“Hello, Eren!” Krista says. Eren looks at her and says to Mikasa, “I’ll see you after school,” and takes his leave. Mikasa rolls her eyes and sighs. 

“Sorry, he’s being a dick lately. Puberty I think.” Annie snorts.

The warning bell rings and Mikasa inquires where everyone’s homerooms are. Turns out, Annie and Mikasa have the same one. Ymir winks at Annie, which earns her a middle finger for her trouble. 

“I’ll see you guys later, we should all hang out though.” Mina calls. Mikasa smiles and turns to Annie to write something on her hand. Her number, by the looks of it. 

“Want me to walk you to your room?” Ymir asks Krista. 

“That would be incredibly nice of you. I'm a little at a loss as to where it is” Krista answers, grinning.

It’s not until after Ymir waves goodbye that she vaguely remembers Krista saying she found all her classes the day prior. She pushes it to the back of her mind as the final bell rings and she has to sprint to get to class on time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is kind of really slow. Things will speed up once the plot gets moving along though!
> 
> Also, feel free to holler at me on tumblr at narutwink.tumblr.com


	3. The Plot Thickens...well kind of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corn dog nuggets are everything.

Homeroom is the typical snore fest that embodies the first day of school. Krista seemed absolutely enthralled and Ymir wondered if she had been homeschooled. She was dressed in, what Ymir assumed was one of her nicest outfits, a peach colored dress that flowed off her sides and brown cow-girl boots. Ymir despised the boots but, Krista was the cutest southern belle she had ever met. 

“As you all well know, the speed limit in the parking lot is to be adhered to or the consequences will be severe.”

Ymir rolled her eyes and imagined the S.R.O. didn’t actually give a shit, he just had to say it. 

“All students who drive their own vehicles are expected to buy a parking hanger from the office by the end of the week or you will charged fifteen dollars for everyday without it.”

Ymir felt her eyelids begin to droop and soon her head was stuck to the desk in a small puddle of drool. 

 

She was shaking. She wouldn’t process that fact until she woke in the hospital and had to relive the experience to the police, but it was true nonetheless. She was never one to experience fear in its basic sense, for the most part she was able to face things head on. 

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE TO SAY?”

The fear was paralytic, she heard that could happen. Mrs. Langnar, her health teacher, talked about why people freeze up in terrifying situations. 

“The brain goes on overdrive and can’t decide on a proper path so instead of moving, you are stuck and you can sometimes black out and not even remember being in that situation to begin with.”

She wished that was happening now. She wished she could just pass out and go into some sort of a small coma, she was never quite that lucky. 

“ANSWER ME, BITCH.”

Ymir stared at the man before her and she was terrified. This was never how this was supposed to happen.

“I DON’T OWE A DEADBEAT A GODDAMN EXPLANATION.”

Ymir felt the words leave her mouth and she stood with pride at the force behind them, despite her fear. Her anger was stronger at the moment. 

She saw him rear his fist back and she screwed her eyes shut and waited for the impact. 

 

“Ymir?”

Her eyes shot open and she could feel the cold sweat pooling at the back of her neck. Ymir sat up quickly and took in her surroundings before realizing she was still in homeroom. She looked up and found Krista standing over her with a look of concern marring her features. 

“Yeah, sorry. I must have dozed off.”

Krista brows knit with confusion and she produced a small frown.

“You looked like you were in pain, are you all right?”

Ymir pushed some hair out of her eyes and let out a small sigh. 

“I’m fine, short stuff. Homeroom looks to be over, thanks for waking me up. What class is in here next? Not Foreman I hope, that guy’s an entire bag of dicks.”

Krista smiled and said, “No. It’s Mr. Pixis, he teaches Civics and Economics.”

Ymir nods her head confidently.

“He’s my basketball coach, he’s the fucking bomb. He isn’t a complete asshole and actually cares about your learning. You will love him, everyone does.”

“That sounds fantastic!” Krista says clapping her hands together once. 

Ymir smiles and stands to clap a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh yeah. Just throw my name out and I’m sure he’ll love you right away. Plus, you’re basically a tiny angel and if any teacher dislikes you, it’s probably because they are Satan spawn.”

Krista blushes and looks to the clock nervously.

“You should probably get going, I don’t want to make a bad impression by making you late!”

Ymir stretches and nods, “You’re right. Real quick, which lunch do you have?”

Krista grabs her bag and answers, “Third,” after glancing at her schedule. 

Ymir high fives her, “So do Annie and I, you’re welcome to chill with us, if you want.”

Krista beams and laughs, “Of course! You seem to forget that y’all are my only friends in this state.”

“Valid point.”

 

Ymir had nearly forgotten how shitty school could be. Nearly. Her next teacher, AP Stats, had droned on like the human version of molasses dripping down a tree in Canada during the winter. She could practically feel her eyes melting out of her head at just thought of an entire semester of it.

AP English III was better in every way Ymir could imagine. Her teacher was lively, funny and full of energy and obviously loved to teach. When the class had settled in he had hit the lights and grabbed a flashlight and held below his chin, casting an “eerie” glow on his face. 

“Well, students,” he had begun, “or should I say victims.”

There was a collective silent gulp among the class. 

“You have entered the realm of AP English. Be warned! There will be no going back after today. You will face horrors, the likes of which mortal eyes should never befall!”

Ymir couldn’t help but smile, he then jumped on his desk and held out his arms. 

“BEWARE YOUNG MINDS! The terrors of this class include the ghastly beast of a twenty minute powerpoint project!”

A gasp erupted.

“Indeed! But do not forget, you will be writing at least THREE FULL ESSAYS every week!!”

A boy across from Ymir fake fainted.

“This boy is right to fear! Now that I have cautioned you lost souls, my name is Mr. Shadis. Welcome to AP English III.”  
The class erupted into a round of applause and Mr. Shadis took a bow. He walked towards the door and flipped the light switch and high fived every student in his path. 

“He’s cool as shit.” Ymir hears Marco Bodt whisper. 

“Hell yeah, we made a kickass choice this year Bodt.” Marco low fives her under his table and laughs.

Marco Bodt and Ymir Upphaf had an interesting and compelling history when it came to English class. It had all begun in sixth grade when the Accelerated Reading program was started. 

This program allowed for kids, when they read a book, to take a quiz on the book. However many points they earned on each quiz was added to their overall score and a star was added to the chart on the wall. By the end of the third week, both Marco and Ymir were tied for first place with ten books leaving everyone else on their second or third book. 

It was war.

Ymir then burned through the entire Harry Potter series while Marco took on Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarrilian, Pride and Prejudice and Things Fall Apart. They kept in pace with each other pretty consistently. Every so often someone would jump ahead, but it always evened out. By the time the end of the year began to close in, the class had a small gambling ring against would win the final month. On the last AR test taken, two points had been the difference between defeat and victory.

Marco was crestfallen, but he came in second place so both were honored at the end of the year banquet. Seventh grade was the year of the great essay battle, which had led to a twelve - page essay from Ymir and a fourteen - page essay from Marco. Eighth grade was the beginning to a rocky alliance once a group project had them grouped together for the mythology portion. The highest possible grade was awarded to them, this included optional extra credit, which landed them with a 110.

Ninth grade was the year they realized that they were an unstoppable force of nature and English was their battleground. They have been good friends ever since. 

 

“Ymir. If you don’t stop inhaling your food, you’re going to end up in the hospital and I’m not coming to your funeral because you choked on a corn dog nugget.” 

Ymir shoots Annie a glare and gulps down the massive mouthful she was currently working on.

“Look, piss pants. You know corn dog nuggets are sacred and we have no idea when they might serve them again.”

“We literally have an entire year.”

“Nay sayer. Blashpemy. Witch. You better be glad this isn’t the 1400’s or you would be fucked.”

Annie rolls her eyes and looks back at her math textbook while taking a swig of her milk.

Ymir glances at the blonde and notices she still refuses to eat lunch. 

“Hey, I got double corndog nuggets. Eat a couple, you know it’s only good thing in this place. Like I said, they're sacred.”

Annie keeps her face in the book and says, “Nah. I’m good.”

“Annie. Look at me.”

Annie turns to Ymir with a look of confusion.

“Eat some nuggets.” Ymir holds out her hand and realization crosses Annie’s face momentarily.

“I’m fine, Ymir.” She insists. 

“I’m not in the business of asking twice.” The taller says tersely. 

Annie frowns and grabs them from her hand, placing one in her mouth.

“Thank you.” Annie doesn’t respond, but she eats all the nuggets.

“Hey y’all! Sorry, this cafeteria is kind of big, I didn’t see you two right away!” Annie and Ymir look up to see Krista sashaying towards their table. Ymir gracefully drops her fork on accident. 

“Krista, how are your classes?” Annie asks immediately, probably to keep Krista attention from her blunder. 

“Oh, they’re fantastic honey! Gosh Ymir, you were right about Mr. Pixis, he’s a hoot! I mentioned you to him and he just laughed. I’m not sure why but he told me to tell you, ‘Good luck.”

‘That dick.’ Ymir thinks inwardly.

“Oh, you have Pixis? Well, as funny as he is, homework is his thing. Expect a lot of it.” Annie contributes. Krista nods and gives Annie a thumbs up.

“What other class are stuck in?” Ymir asks while putting a spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Home Economics with Ms. Marcel.”

“Ew.” Annie and Ymir utter simultaneously.

“What?” Krista asks, visibly concerned.

“We took it together our freshman year and the only thing we got out of that class was a stove top fire and eight detentions.” Ymir mutters.

“Marcel is the literal worst.” Annie says through a frown.

“I would love to hear the story behind that.” Krista jokes.

“No, you don’t.” The two say, eliciting a giggle from Krista.

 

Ymir stood in the hallway of the cultural arts department for nearly ten minutes before she finally built up the courage to enter the theatre. 

She always felt out of place in the large, open space. Stage fright was one of her worst qualities. It was actually one of the reasons it took so long for her to play sports. It also contributed to her third grade horror of puking all over the fairy princess in their school play, Annie still brings it up from time to time.

Ymir did a quick scan of the room and found a familiar tuft of brown hair.

“Hey, Hange!”

The pure energy of happiness and adrenaline in human form turned on their heel at the mention of their name.

“Ymir! A bit out of place, aren't we? Did you get lost? I mean, it’s your junior year, you really should be over that by now.”

Ymir smiles and snorts at them.

“No, smartass. I’m looking for Erwin, have you seen him?”

“You found him, what’s up?”

Ymir turned to find Captain America incarnate holding an enormous box. There weren’t many people taller than Ymir, but Erwin Smith was one of them.

“Do you have a minute? If you’re busy I can just text you later or something.”

Erwin shook his head, “Nah. We’re just cleaning out from last semester, I’ve got time.” He says, but after a once over he adds, “You ok?”

Ymir realized she was fidgeting more than normal and quickly put her hands in her pockets.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just curious, you’re football captain this year right?”

Erwin beamed.

“You got it. I’m the head dog this go round.”

“Congrats, by the way, but my real question is…uhm. When are try-outs?”

Erwin stopped short and turned to her.

“Are you looking to try-out?”

Ymir nods quickly.

Erwin grins and says, “Next Friday. Bring your A game,” and leaves it at that. 

Ymir turns to see Hange grinning beside her.

“Shut up, Hange.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“But I know you’re going to say, ‘OH MY, Ymir! You’ll be the first person other than a cis male to try out for the team. Make us proud!’ and then I’ll get really nervous and overwhelmed.”

“I was actually going to just say good luck.”

“No you weren’t.” 

“You’re right, I wasn’t, but good luck!”

Ymir smirks and punches Hange in the arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me you guys. This took way longer than expected. If you want to send me some criticism or if you just want to say hi then you can visit my Tumblr, narutwink.tumblr.com


	4. Ymir vs Fragile Masculinity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lying on your back in the middle of football field with possible broken ribs is never the best way to end you first day of school.

This was a bad idea. Why did she even think this was any sort of good idea?

Ymir was splayed out on her back in the middle of the football field surrounded by a group of guys. She could hear Erwin Smith yelling something as he pushed through the crowd, but her head felt too foggy to make it out. Suddenly he was bent over her and snapping his fingers. 

“Ymir. Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Captain Rogers.”

He let out a sigh through his nose and smirked at her. 

“How many fingers am I holding up?” He asks.

“Three, how many am I?” She held up her middle finger and he offered her his hand.

“You good to go, still? Throwing arm good?” Erwin asks as she tries to find her equilibrium. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I just got the breath knocked out of me.” She states with a cough. “It might be the black lung, Pa.”

“Alright,” He says sarcastically and turns to his team, “I DON’T KNOW WHO LEFT HER WIDE OPEN FOR THE TACKLE but I can tell you assholes if I see that BULLSHIT again, I will personally kick your asses from here to the other end of the field.”

“Come on Smith, she just can’t take a hit.” One of the linebackers says.

She had seen Erwin get mad before, but she feared God in this moment and she didn’t even believe in him.

“Really? If I recall, the first time you got tackled you felt it was unfair and threatened to sue the other guy for damages. Talk about not being able to take a hit.” She could hear his veiled threat of ‘or I can just show you what a real hit is’ behind his gritted teeth.

The kid glared at Erwin as the potential team burst into laughter. He opened his mouth to say something shitty back but Ymir heard the coach blow his whistle. 

“Alright dick heads, back in position. If your standing Upphaf, that means you too.”

Ymir smiled and gave a thumbs up to the coach. 

“You’re trying to be the quarterback, right? Heard you’ve got a hell of an arm.”

“That would be all of the softball, coach.” She responds with a smile. 

“Well, take the quarterback position this time around. I want to see if Smith’s praises are warranted.” Ymir blushed and gave herself a mental note to bully Levi into taking Erwin on a nice date soon. 

Ymir loved to brag. She didn’t do it often, but she was proud of the things she was good at and not afraid to hide it. Being surrounded by the sea of fragile masculinity that she was in now, she felt she had every right to brag as much as she damn well pleased. 

“I’ve never seen Captain Smith be wrong about anything before.” That was a complete lie, but she had an image to uphold.

She got into position behind the hiker and got ready to call out the play. 

Forty five seconds later she had the ball in her hands. 

Fifty seconds later the ball left her hand and barreled towards Erwin, who had been the resident star wide receiver since his freshman year, and he caught it with ease. 

Fifty two seconds later Ymir was on the ground again and staring up at a group of incredibly scared football players. 

“Boys.” Ymir croaks out. It felt like someone had played “My Heart Will Go On” on her windpipe with a hammer.

A hand came out and she took it, things were still a bit blurry but she heard Reiner’s voice. 

“Geez, you flew like, ten feet.”

“Wish I knew that I could fly in middle school. I would’ve gotten away with stealing way more Little Debbie cakes.”

“She’s fine.” He grunts out to those behind him.

“Ymir,” Erwin put a hand on her shoulder, “Go get some water and sit this play out.”

She turned to glare at him but he was looking at the field. 

“You got it, captain.” She sighs and walks towards the drink stand, ignoring an oncoming limp.

She collapses on to the bench and finds a bottle of water held in front her. 

“As happy as I am to see you out here, you might want to take it easy for more than one play.” Nanaba suggests. 

“I’m not going to let some prick who keeps tackling me keep me on a fucking bench.” She states before taking a swig of the water. 

Nanaba sighs and throws her hands up, “No one ever listens to the manager. Don’t come crying to me when you break a rib.”

Ymir smirks, “I think we both know that won’t happen.”

Ymir focused on the play at hand and watched Bertholdt catch the ball. Which meant Erwin was playing something other than wide receiver, which made no sense. She scanned for him and barely caught sight of him before he barreled into the quarterback. 

Who was being played by the guy who had taken Ymir out twice.

Erwin crashed into him like an incredibly angry elephant. It was a dirty play, the ball had already left his hand and was in play on the other side of the field. This was spiteful. 

The guy shot up and ripped his helmet off in a rage. 

“WHAT THE FUCK.” 

“Since you feel the need to attack the quarterback with no regard for what’s going on with the rest of the field, I felt you should have the honor of the feeling of being singled out. I mean, it’s obvious you want to be the center of attention and how much more attention could you get sprawled out like a dumbass midfield?” 

The kid was red in the face, Ymir couldn’t help but wonder if all the blood in his body had gone straight to his ugly head. 

He was practically frothing at the mouth but Erwin cut him off before he spout off any bullshit. 

“I’m not the coach, so I can’t say whether you can stay or go, but I can promise that if you make this personal I’ll beat the ever-loving shit out of you.” 

He nodded towards Ymir to get her back on the field and she couldn’t help but wink at the asshole as she put her helmet back on. 

 

“I’m telling you, Erwin is fucking terrifying.” Reiner complained as he headed towards the locker room. 

Bertholdt just nodded as he toweled off his face. Ymir was walking between them with her helmet under her arm, laughing.

“Did you see that kids face though? It looked like he had contracted rabies. Maybe that’s why he’s such a dick.”

Reiner snorted. 

“Wouldn’t surprise me. Either way, I never want to be on his bad side. By the way, most of us are meeting over at my house tonight to hang out and stuff. You’re welcome to come.”

Ymir shook her head and stretched.

“I think my ribs are pretty bruised and I want to go soak in a hot bath for a couple hours and regret it in the morning.”

Bertholdt smiled, “That sounds way better than getting drunk off our ass.”

“It actually does.” Reiner mutters. 

“Sorry boys, this is a party of one, but I’ll take you up on the offer some other time.”

They waved her off as they headed into the boys locker room. She stopped by the water fountain to refill her bottle when she heard someone yell her name. 

She looked over to find the pompous asshole. Great.

“I’m talking to you bitch.”

“I’m really not in the mood, bro.”

“Too bad.” She noticed he had acquired two more douchebags. Oh, she was being threatened. 

“Why don’t you just stick to cheerleading? Pretty girls like you aren’t meant to play football, they just date football players, like me.” Gag.

“I’m a lesbian, for starters,” she states. 

“Oh, you’re a dyke, that makes sense. You should…” Ymir crushed the bottle in her hand and jabbed her fist into his solar plexus. 

He crumpled to the floor and she brought her foot down on his chest. 

“Call me a dyke again, and I’ll be wearing your fucking teeth as a necklace.”

“Is there a problem here?” Ymir looked up to find Levi, looking more or less amused. 

“I don’t know,” Ymir lilts, “Is there?” She asked those who were still standing. The two remaining beefcakes shook their heads and muttered some version of, “nah man.” Ymir stepped away from the tool on the floor. He glared at her as he passed but she just smiled.

“The first day and you’ve already made friends.” Levi states.

“You know me, I’m such a people person.”

“Obviously.”

She grabs her bag she had dropped to the floor and blows air back into her crushed water bottle.

“What are you doing here this late, anyway?” She asks as she begins refilling the bottle. 

“I came to get Erwin and bring him a change of clothes. He left some at my house last night and they were starting to stink up my car. I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Ymir waggeled her eyebrows and Levi’s permanent scowl deepened. 

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Whatever.” She said in a sing-song voice. “You two gays have fun.”

“We will.” Erwin deadpans from the edge of the hallway. Ymir broke out into a laughing fit as Levi attempted to punch his boyfriend in the mouth. 

He was unsuccessful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this has taken so long everyone. I haven't been writing as much as I used too because of school and work and everything, but it's here now!!
> 
> Come visit/yell at me on Tumblr at narutwink.tumblr.com


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